Another big story that has slowly been bubbling over the weekend is whether Detroit Automakers should be the recipients of a bailout. This time it will only be $25 billion in taxpayer money. General Motors alone is expected to be taking $10 billion, with Ford and Chrysler splitting the rest.

I think Andrew Ross Sorkin said it best in today's business section of the New York Times. "G.M. is using money so quickly that a $10 billion infusion made today would disappear by February. That is why taxpayers shouldn't fork over a cent, at least until shareholders are wiped out, management is tossed out and the industry is completely reorganized."

If we are going to give General Motors $10 billion, then they better get off their butts. My guess is they won't. The only way to really get them rolling is to make the Big 3 start from scratch when/if they receive a bailout. Over the last who knows how many years, where has upper management been? When they should have been innovative and developing new technology to create improved cars, they were off on vacation blowing their high salaries. Now that the crunch has hit, they are low on funds. Maybe if they developed some technology that would compete with Asia's then they would not be in this situation.

Another reason I don't want to see this pass is because it is another $25 billion being passed on to the tax payer. Add that to the $700B from earlier this year and I'm going to be paying for these guys for the rest of my life.

Not Kosher!

I have important news for all those Hillary Clinton fans. It has been reported that she is planning to accept the job of Secretary of State for the Obama administration. News broke late Monday night that she would accept the job. Apparently the job was first offered at a super secret meeting in Chicago last Thursday. Since then Obama's people have been reviewing the Clinton's history to see who they have ties with.

Also on Monday, Obama met with John McCain in Chicago. I wonder what they might have discussed.

Okay so it has already been a week and a half. Tony's lead is growing and growing. It stands at over 2,000 votes. Can we just announce it already?

Please let me know when we're ready as I'd be more than happy to break the story.

More Ballots in; 10 Percent Left [Ventura County Star]

Today in the editorial section Timm Herdt gave a good examination of what is happening with the Republican Party in the state.  They are to say the least, dead in the water.

John McCain lost almost all of the former Republican strongholds in the state. Much of the Republicans who once held secure seats faced a very competitive election this fall, most evident with the race for the 19^th Senate District. This seat used to be a safe Republican seat. During the election Tony Strickland had to campaign his butt off and we still don't know if he's the winner.

In the article Timm talks about how the party really needs to come up with new ideas that can be competitive with the Democrats. And this is true. I've heard the Party referred to as a bunch of knuckle draggers and unfortunately, that is how most of California sees the party. They say that the Republicans want to live in the 50's. Sad to say but this sometimes sounds true.

To continue, the Republican Party must be reborn, in the state, and across the nation. Especially here in California, the state that is the most progressive, new ideas must emerge. I know Republicans are smart and are able to do this. We have just as many MBA's and lawyers as the Dems. They just don't want to. Sticking to their no new taxes stance is as old as the modern party is and is ok. It is just everything else that the Republican Party needs to start thinking dynamically about.

Listen to me; I want to see the Republican Party succeed. I like Tim though, wonder if they can.

Herdt: Can GOP Get Off The Floor

Analysis: On the way out, it's Bush the statesman

By BEN FELLER

WASHINGTON (AP) -- No matter how people remember President Bush's time in office, let there be no doubt about how he wants to end it: gracefully.

Never mind that Democrat Barack Obama spent all that time deriding Bush for "failed policies," or mocking him for hiding in an "undisclosed location" because he was too unpopular to show up with his party's own candidate, John McCain. This is transition time. Outgoing presidents support the new guy.

And on that front, Bush is going well beyond the minimum. He has embraced the role of statesman with such gusto that it has been hard to miss.

The result is that Bush's last image at the White House will be one of a magnanimous leader. Whether it will improve his legacy is much more in doubt.

"This has been a very good moment late in his presidency, and, I think it's fair to say, much appreciated by the nation," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, the home of Bush's planned presidential library.

With just 70 days left as president, Bush is pretty much out of time to alter public perception of his performance. He cannot get a Middle East peace deal, or turn around a failing economy, or rekindle broad support for the war in Iraq. But leaving on good terms? Now that he can control.

So on Monday at the White House, Bush warmly welcomed Obama, whose dominant win last week was largely seen as a referendum on the Bush years.

The two leaders spent more than an hour discussing domestic and foreign policy in the Oval Office. And then Bush gave Obama a personal tour all around.

The world saw video images that were replayed all day and night: Bush and first lady Laura Bush greeting Obama and his wife, Michelle, as if they were old friends; Bush strolling with the president-elect along the famous Colonnade adjacent to the Rose Garden, both men waving and smiling.

Translation: Smooth transition.

The scene was the latest in a flurry of moves by Bush, all designed to show he is serious about making Obama's start a success on Jan. 20.

Mere hours after Obama handily ended eight years of Republican rule, Bush commended Americans for making history. "They chose a president whose journey represents a triumph of the American story -- a testament to hard work, optimism and faith in the enduring promise of our nation," Bush said.

If that effusiveness wasn't enough, he called Obama's win an inspiring moment and said it will be a "stirring sight" when the whole Obama family arrives.

Then Bush called together about 1,000 employees on the South Lawn and told them to embrace the transition earnestly. This could have been handled in a press release, or even an internal memo to staff. Instead, it was a big, showy expression of support for Obama, with Bush's Cabinet standing behind him.

"The peaceful transfer of power is one of the hallmarks of a true democracy," Bush said. "And ensuring that this transition is as smooth as possible is a priority for the rest of my presidency."

In case anyone missed the point, Bush underscored it in his Saturday radio address. He pledged an "unprecedented effort" to help Obama take power.

Obama's team is noticing. "So far, cooperation has been excellent," said transition chief John Podesta, a veteran of Bill Clinton's White House.

It was Bush's father, the 41st president, who bitterly lost to Clinton in 1992. But George H.W. Bush ordered his top aides to cooperate with Clinton's transition team. He was quoted at the time as saying, "Let us all finish the job with the same class with which we served."

Echoes of that comment can be found in nearly ever statement his son has made since Obama won election one week ago.

"I think grace is a very good word for the way Bush is responding. And I'd say there's a little bit of the fact that there's a Bush 41 and a Bush 43," said Stephen Hess, a senior fellow emeritus at The Brookings Institution and the author of a new book about presidential transitions.

"There is now a presidency stamped in their DNA," Hess said. "There is a very exclusive club of people who have been president, and they know they may be called on if there's a crisis. They even somehow bond with other former presidents with whom they were not particularly friendly."

The former President Bush and Clinton, in fact, have become friends and successful humanitarian partners. The two have raised millions of dollars for victims of hurricanes in the United States and an Asian tsunami.

Back in the day when Clinton was president-elect, he deferred to Bush 41 and said, "America has only one president at a time." The line sounds familiar: Obama has been saying the same thing about the current President Bush.

Presidents take transitions seriously because they know the world is watching. The goal is to show that the same petty politics that can define an election will not undermine the transfer of power in a democracy.

In other words, statesmanship is expected.

What's more, Bush has indicated he takes this transition particularly seriously because the nation is in such precarious times. Obama does not inherit a decision about how to spend a budget surplus. Instead, his government will face red ink, an economy in shambles and wars ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"In calmer times, presidents incoming and outgoing have allowed their emotions to run more freely, to show some displeasure and tension," Jillson said. "Bush is aware enough to know that the times don't permit that."

All this doesn't just help Obama. Bush's cooperative approach could serve him well, too. It puts him on the right side of public sentiment.

Ending a tumultuous second term on a positive note certainly can't hurt his standing as he returns to private life.

But it won't be enough to alter Bush's legacy, said Hess, who worked in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations and advised presidents Ford and Carter.

"The encyclopedia is still going to read: `George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States, who created a war in Iraq' or `who let the country be flooded by Katrina,'" Hess said. "It's not going to be, `George W. Bush, who left the office gracefully.'"

I'd like to draw some attention to something special that some students at Pepperdine University are doing. The Life Mission Fashion Show and Concert was held on  November 2, on Pepperdine University's Malibu campus. It drew approximately 500 attendees and raised over $29,500 to help organizations that help children forced into sex slavery and armed forces worldwide. Featured speakers included Isaac Amol, who gave an account of his experiences as a young boy forced into warfare in Southern Sudan. Also there was Heather Moore, a representative from the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Sex Trafficking who explained the issues surrounding modern day slavery and the importance of education on the subject. The fair-trade fashion show featured Pepperdine student designers and finished with a stunning fair-trade Armani clothing line.  Recording artist Matt Wertz gave a stellar concert to finish the event.  Special guests included Apl.de.Ap of the Black Eyed Peas, Keith David, and Cheyne Jackson, a representative from Armani as well as major donors. Donations may still be made online at www.lifemissionbenefit.blogspot.com.

Since Tuesday, election officials have been busily counting up all the ballots submitted. The race between our renewable energy candidate Tony Strickland and lawyer turned politican Hannah Beth Jackson.

Throughout the week each candidate has taken the lead in the race. Today it appears that Jackson has again resumed the lead.

Since there has been so many changes in leading for this particular race, it would only make common sense to have an immediate recount. Once an initial count is cast, they will resume work on the recount. The second count should be better because all of the ballots are now ammassed in one location and can easily be handled. This should also happen a lot quicker than the first count.

Yesterday Governor Schwarzenegger talked. And you know when he talks what happens. So yesterday the big guy goes up in front of everyone and asks for $4.4 billion tax hike. Yikes!

He also said that $4.5 billion in cuts will be necessary across all state programs, including education, social services, health care and prisons.

ARE YOU FREAKIN SERIOUS?

You think we can do this right now especially with new reports that unemployment is up to 6.5-percent. That is probably from the 240,000 jobs that were cut in October. That is a lot of jobs.

So I am going to let you take a guess here how they plan on passing these taxes. Well there's really two options. The first is the Guvenator can sway enough Republicans to vote for the hike. Considering he tried this in the middle of the summer and it didn't work then, it's probably not going to work now. So thats means there's only one option. Have California vote on raising taxes.

ARE YOU FREAKIN SERIOUS?

They want to put a tax hike on the ballot. According to the Demorats in Sacramento thats the only way to get it too pass. How in the world do they expect the people to say yes, to tax themselves when we are going through what we are going through.They say its the only way though.

So I guess we're not raising taxes, or are we? Would you vote for a tax hike? What if it meant better services? What if it didn't? What could they say to make you want to vote for taxes? Would more taxes help? I dont know. What do you think?

And if the tax hikes do pass, lets not do what our not so brilliant Lt. Governor John Garamendi proposes. He says that we don't need the $4.5B in cuts. We can keep that and give more to education. Really? Give more money to education. Is that not what we've been doing the last who knows how many years. And look where that has gotten us.

On Tuesday our nation undertook a new mission. We elected Barack Obama our next President. We showed the world that the American dream still exists. America is still the most dynamic country and deserves to continue to be the guiding light in the world.

One of the first objectives for our next president should be to travel the world and repair the image of our great country. The last eight years has really dragged our name through the mud. This will take more than just getting out there and shaking hands. We must repair our economy leading the way for the rest of the world to follow, leading to repairing the global economy.

Just as important as repairing our global image, Barack Obama must work to unite the country. Over the last several months the election and the economy have dragged the people through the mud and divided us along party lines. Obama needs to show true bipartisanship that he speaks of and work with Congress to help everyone get back on their feet.

As well a duty lies with the American people themselves. Through the election, hate speech appeared on both sides of the campaign. For America to heal its wounds we the people must come together. Working together with your neighbors and family, we can become one strong united country. Something we all can imagine in our eyes. Remember just not that long ago racism was part of everyday life. Now that has changed and racism should have no part in any of our lives.

This is a time to truly come together and be a united country. If not now then we might never have a chance like this again.